Limekilns at Holy Island (3)

This is my third post from August 2013 showing alternative views inside the limekilns at Holy Island (search my blog using the label 'limekilns' to find the others). I love the old stone walls and their shapes, textures and colours. Looking back now I can't believe I used ISO 100 for these shots - at 1/10s without a tripod I must have been holding my breath! I'd like to go back and have another go now I know a bit more about how to use my camera.

Camera/lens settings: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/10s, 18mm, hand held.

Sparkling sea below dark clouds

I took this from Holy Island, Northumberland, looking South from the beach towards Bamburgh Castle, in August 2013. The focus of the picture is the stretch of sea sparkling in a shaft of sunshine, whilst everywhere else is in the shade of the dark clouds. I also love the two very different silhouetted structures - the castle on the horizon and the little cairn of pebbles on the beach; each obviously very different in actual size, but both dwarfed by the vast sky.

In Lightroom, I cropped the image to remove some of the pebble beach in the foreground and increase the drama of the clouds dominating the sky. I also tweaked contrast and exposure to highlight the 'sparkles'.

Boats in the harbour at low tide, Holy Island

This is the view from Holy Island (Lindisfarne) across the harbour to the mainland. I took it on our holiday to Northumberland in August 2013 as we were walking around the island.

I cropped the original to a more panoramic shape to emphasise the line of the mainland, harbour wall and boats. I also played with exposure and contrast in the sky to get the best out of the clouds. I originally converted it to black and white...it did look good that way, but when I switched back to colour for a final decision, I noticed how it was largely made up of blues and earthy tones. Those colours appear in the boats, the land, the sand and the clouds and, I think, are worth keeping in.

Pilgrims' Way between Holy Island and the mainland

This is the much-photographed 'pathway' across the sand and mud flats between Holy Island (Lindisfarne), and the mainland, Northumberland. We were just driving off the island after our visit in August 2013 when I spotted these posts and parked up to take photos. Up to that point, I'd never seen them before, either in real life or photographs, and didn't realise it was actually the original route for crossing by foot, before the causeway was built.

In the original image, the narrow stretch of cloud at the top right of the photo was almost black and really ruined the photo. I cropped the image down as far as I could without affecting composition, then, by using a couple of graduated filters in Lightroom I managed to bring the offending cloud back into the same colour range as the others. I also made some overall changes to contrast and exposure to accentuate the reflection of the sky and cloud in the puddle.

Lime kilns on Holy Island (2)

This is an alternative view of the lime kilns to the image I posted on 21st October. I really like the shapes and textures - could spend ages capturing different views and angles in there!

I made a few changes to exposure, contrast, shadows and highlights and converted to black and white in Lightroom.